cont .... A TREE GREW IN POND STREETThe wives of the quarrelsome, aggressive drunks waited at home, cowed and silent, depressed to the point of inactivity. It was no use going to bed and pretending to be asleep, that would infuriate a boozed-up bully still further, and there were children sharing the same bedroom. Most of these women bore the scars and misshapen features from previous beatings. The will to do anything about it had been knocked out of them many years previously.
Their neighbours knew what was going on. They heard every muffled blow and curse, but realized it would only inflame the situation still further if they tried to intervene. You cannot reason with a drunk. They would wait until he had gone to work the next day, then pop round to see if there was anything they could do for the pathetic victim.
In some cases the drunken bully would get a taste of his own medicine. Especially if his wife had brothers. A group of 'heavies' would be waiting for him as he staggered out of the pub door. He would be far too drunk to recognize anyone, and any witnesses to the incident would know the case history of the petty tyrant, and remain tight-lipped.
In other households it would be the woman who ruled the roost and, if her husband had the temerity to roll home blind drunk, he would find the door locked and bolted and have the contents of the chamber-pot poured over him, from an open bedroom window.
Cutlery workers were notorious for their drinking habits. After a week-end of heavy drinking most of them spent Monday sobering up and claimed it was a public holiday. It was nick-named Saint Monday.
It was interesting to note the church's reaction to drunkeness in the neighbourhood. In the "Sale Memorial Parish Magazine" for the year 1889/90, there is an article written by a Miss Ellice Hopkins, blaming a man's excessive drinking on his wife's bad cooking. She asks, "How much of the drinking habits of our people is due to their miserable, badly cooked food, and the longing in the master of the house to wash his mouth out at the public house after such poor, ill-tasting fare?"END.
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